After a mother (Ando Sakura) discovers that a teacher’s bullying is behind her young son’s sudden strange behavior, she storms into his school demanding an explanation. Continually left without satisfactory answers—and with an increasingly distressed child—she furiously escalates her concerns to the school board and the media. But as the story unfolds through the multilayered perspectives of mother, teacher, and child, the real truth gradually emerges—and proves much more complex than anyone could have expected.
Featuring the majestic final score by the legendary musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, the latest film from celebrated Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters) is an ambitious and deeply moving story that fuses the director’s signature brand of humanist family drama with a riveting Rashomon-inspired mystery narrative. Winner of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival’s Best Screenplay award, Monster peels back the layers of a deceptively simple tale of school bullying and parental intervention to uncover a complex web of secrets, lies, preconceptions and misunderstandings that yield potentially devastating consequences. Â
